Heroes Get Remembered
by justfandomwritings
Summary: "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." Bucky read the words, but he couldn't process them. Hero? Legend? Bucky wasn't either of those things. Those words were reserved for generals, warriors, doctors... a little punk from Brooklyn in stripey tights who didn't know when to give up... and a young nurse who threw herself in a warzone to save the ones she loved.


_November 2014_

Steve collapsed into the nearest armchair and buried his face in his hands. This was the most exhausted he had felt since 1945. He genuinely could not remember the last time he'd gotten a full night's sleep. Actually, he couldn't remember the last time he'd gotten more than two hours at a time.

"Cap," Sam followed his friend into the room and tossed his jacket into the chair opposite Steve. "You okay?"

Steve chuckled, still a little dazed. "Do I look okay?"

"No," Sam dropped down into his seat. "You look like hell, which is still probably twice as good as you're feeling."

Steve's gaze fell to the floor. He felt awful. It wasn't just the exhaustion either. It was sheer desperation. He had been searching for over half a year now, and he was still no closer than he had been on day one. The whole thing was starting to look useless, and Steve was starting to feel hopeless.

He'd put so much of his effort into this. Steve hadn't been on a mission with the Avengers in months! If he called off the search now, it meant he not only gave up on his mission but also let his friend's down for nothing. Giving up and letting people down were two things Steve had never done, in this life or the last. He had to pick one or the other.

The only way Steve could justify his actions, to everyone else but most importantly to himself, was for this to succeed. There was so much more to lose if he gave up. His friends would just have to understand.

"Hey," Sam leaned forward and clapped the Captain firmly on the shoulder. "We knew this wasn't going to be easy. We just have to keep trying."

Sam definitely understood, more than most. He knew the lengths he himself would go to if he found out Riley was still alive. They hadn't even reached that point yet. Let alone what Sam imagined if he added in childhood best friends and his only tie to his real home. A guy like Steve, Sam wouldn't blame him for moving the world to bring his friend home.

"I just…" Steve looked up with bleary eyes. "I just want to understand. Why is he running from me? Why is he going to…" Steve waved his hand at the map. The map sat on the table in the corner, a permanent fixture of the room since this whole search started. "To these places. It doesn't make any sense."

They'd both been wondering that. The map was peppered in tiny little 'x's: a few each in America, Russia, Europe, one in Brazil, Mexico, Egypt. They knew exactly where he'd been, but they had no idea why and no idea where he was going.

"I don't know Steve," Sam sighed and slumped back. "Maybe he's… going back to what he remembers or looking for something."

The first answer didn't make sense, and they both knew it. Every location he'd been spotted at had been near a Hydra base or cell, but with some help from the Hydra files Natasha leaked, they'd worked out a pretty good timeline of each of the Winter Soldier's missions and had a fairly accurate account of which facility was storing him at any given time. None of those facilities got hit. In fact, most of the ones on the map had been abandoned for so long they weren't even in the Hydra record at SHIELD.

As for the second answer, they were less sure. By the time Sam and Steve found evidence of Hydra at each sighting the location had been picked over for any valuable information and trashed. For the first four missions they hadn't even been sure if it was the Winter Soldier or Hydra agents who'd done the damage, but the fifth sighting had been the only one near an active Hydra cell. The agents there didn't even run a full base, just a small warehouse office for recruitment and records. They'd finally uncovered it only to find all of the agents dead in a heap and a substantial chunk of their files missing.

Six more sightings followed like the first four, and Steve and Sam were forced to resign themselves to collecting whatever was salvageable to bring back to New York for analysis. Stark had helped, but even then they'd found nothing. If the Winter Soldier was looking for something, they had no idea what it was.

"Well, well, well, my fine feathered friend," Steve and Sam jolted up as Tony Stark came sauntering into the Avengers' apartments. He was flanked by Natasha and Bruce who looked just as bemused as Steve felt. "Close but no cigar."

"You have something?" Sam said it in a tone he only hoped would convey how much he really was not in the mood for the billionaire's usual attitude. He'd just spent the last 36 hours helping Steve loot through an abandoned science lab in the Czech Republic, and all they'd turned up were paper copies of drug inventories and a broken computer even Stark couldn't hope to fix. Sam wanted a nap… a twelve-hour nap… and some food.

"Not something," Tony pointed out, whipping out the folder behind his back and waving it like he'd won some kind of prize, "Someone."

"Pardon?" Steve halfheartedly prompted.

The three newcomers wandered over to join them, and Tony dropped the folder in Sam's lap as he passed. "He's not looking for something. He's looking for someone."

"How do you know this?" That got the Captain sitting up a little straighter in his seat.

"Never," Tony poked at him, "tell me I can't fix something."

Sam flipped open the folder in his lap and started scanning the title page. "You got this off that old piece of junk we brought in today?"

"Yep," Tony responded smugly. "Just took a little digging. It wasn't actually in that bad of shape. Your best buddy took great care to wipe it of all the important things, but it just made it pretty obvious what I needed to be looking for when I opened it up."

"So he's after someone then," Steve mused and concentrated thinking. "An old Hydra agent? One of their scientists?"

Sam blanched as he turned the page in the file. "Oh, he's not after just anyone…" He set the file down and slid it across to Steve. "And she's definitely not a Hydra agent."

Steve bent down to pick up the file, but before his fingers could even scoop it up his eyes caught the picture in the corner.

Why did the room suddenly get so hot? Was it just him? His hand hung limp an inch above the paper, and it was shaking uncontrollably fast. There was a burning feeling in his chest, and he could practically feel his body rushing with sudden adrenaline.

In the distance, barely registering at the back of Steve's consciousness, he heard Tony asking Sam. "You know her?"

No, he wanted to say, but he couldn't form the word. Sam didn't know her. Steve had thought he never would. She was a world away, a lifetime away.

With trembling fingers, Steve reached into the pocket of his jacket for the picture he carried with him at all times. It was black and white and 70 years old, but Steve remembered every colorful detail like it was yesterday. It was the happiest day of Steve's life.

In the left of the frame was Bucky, the old Bucky. Before the Winter Soldier, before the metal arm, before Hydra, before the war. He was the Bucky girls would throw themselves on their knees in front of begging for a dance. He was the Bucky guys looked on with envy as he raised his fist and bounced around the boxing ring in triumph. Everyone loved Bucky; everyone wanted to be Bucky. Even in the photo, he was cracking everyone up with another joke. The smile on his face back then could light up any room he walked into. He looked happy, healthy. He was the Bucky Steve remembered.

To the right was Steve, pre-serum Steve. He looked like a different person; he'd felt like a different person. He was short and very thin. He looked sickly and pale, but he was laughing, Bucky's doing. Girls didn't fawn over him back then the way they had with Bucky, or Steve after. Guys didn't give him a second glance except to try to beat him into submission. That Steve only had one friend, and yet it was as content as Steve ever remembered being. He had everything he'd ever wanted and needed. He was happy.

There, in the middle, between Bucky and Steve was a girl. She was about the same height as Steve. Her hair fell loose around her face in long curls that he remembered to be blonde. Her arms were thrown haphazardly around both boys, and the photo was taken with her mouth smiling wide at Bucky's joke. Her eyes squinted with humor, but Steve could still see the bright twinkle behind her lashes. She was beautiful, more beautiful than the girls who fell at Bucky's feet or threw a cold shoulder Steve's direction. She was a true diamond in the rough. People flocked to her like moths to a flame. It was as much her heart and her spirit as her looks. She was the purest, kindest soul Steve had met in any generation. When she walked into a room, people turned. Her presence demanded attention, respect. People often questioned if even Bucky, with all his looks and charm and talents, was worthy of a girl like her.

"Who is she then?" Tony asked Sam.

Steve dropped the picture from his hand down next to the one in the file and slid it back to Stark. "He's looking for my sister."


End file.
